Boy, 11, suspended for 364 days after school finds leaf that looks like pot

An 11-year-old Virginia boy was given a 364-day suspension for possession of leaf that school administrators thought was marijuana–but it really was not. (Getty)

Early last September an 11-year-old Virginia boy was a happy-go-lucky sixth-grader in the gifted and talented program at Bedford Middle School. Later that month, an incident occurred that threw him into a depression, nearly bankrupt his parents and dramatically changed his family’s life.

The story goes that students at Bedford told administrators that the boy, who’s identified as R.M.B in court papers, brought marijuana to school. The assistant principal searched R.M.B.’s backpack and found a leaf and lighter, according to the Roanoke Times.

The students say the boy was bragging about his pot stash but the boy has told his parents that he didn’t put the leaf in his backpack and never told anyone about having pot. His parents, Bruce and Linda Bays, believe he was likely set up.

“Essentially they kicked him out of school for something they couldn’t prove he did,” the Bays’ lawyer, Melvin Williams, told the the Times.

R.M.B. was suspended immediately and later given a 364-day suspension. He was also charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court although the charges were later dropped because the leaf tested negative for cannabis.

The boy is now returning to school on probation but the Bays say their son has sunk into a depression over the past six months and the parents have spent nearly all their money on legal and therapy bills. R.M.B. suffers from anxiety and panic attacks and is now under the care of a physician, the Roanoke Timesreports. The mother and father are both schoolteachers and took some time off work to homeschool the boy over sending him to a school for troubled youth where he would have been searched before and after school.

After the suspension, “he just broke down and said his life was over,” Linda told the Times. “He would never be able to get into college; he would never be able to get a job.”

The outraged parents filed a lawsuit against Bedford County Schools, alleging school administrators violated the boy’s due process rights under the U.S. Constitution, and against the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office for malicious prosecution. The attorney representing both the district and the county, Jim Guynn, says the family doesn’t have a strong case because the school district’s drug policy treats lookalike drugs the same as the real thing and the police officer says she was was certain the leaf was pot when she initially identified it.

Linda Bays is still shocked that her son was suspended: “Why would you want an 11-year-old gifted-and-talented student out of school for 364 days?”